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In less than a month, “The Farmer and The Chef” will premiere at the San Jose Repertory Theatre as part of the Cinequest Film Festival. The brainchild of filmmaker Michael Whalen, the film is a 70-minute documentary about the singular relationship between David Kinch of Manresa and Cynthia Sandberg of Love Apple Farms.

In the trailer above, Kinch describes the symbiotic relationship with the farm as “the single largest professional challenge I’ve had in 15 or 20 years.” Sandberg also notes: “We don’t do it just for the glamor, publicity of it. We’re doing it to make a living.”

The film project actually started four years ago.

Whalen, a South Bay resident, heard that several national networks were looking for docu-series ideas centered around green and environmental themes, like “The Fabulous Beekman Boys.” Whalen had a few ideas at the time, but his wife floated an idea: Why not talk to Manresa and David Kinch?

They weren’t exactly regulars at Manresa, but had been three or four times. Whalen’s mother was a regular at Kinch’s prior restaurant, Sent Sovi in Saratoga. Kinch recognized the name, and Whalen believes that was the crack in the door that he needed.

“We sat down and he was adamant about one thing,” says Whalen. “He was all for it, but wanted to make sure the farm and Cynthia’s story was front and center, along with what the farm means to him and his restaurant.”

Mike Whalen at work. Photo: Nicole Whalen

Whalen went to visit Love Apple Farms, and as it happened, Spanish chef Mauro Colagreco was there prepping for his Manresa dinner. Whalen whipped out his camera and started filming, just to see start fiddling with the project. Things soon crystallized.

“What I quickly realized was that it wasn’t a television series,” says Whalen. “[Manresa] is not Hell’s Kitchen. It’s the most mellow, calm kitchen you’ll see in your life. Literally. There’s no yelling. There’s barely any communication, other than someone walking up next to someone else and quietly talking.”

“It was a documentary.”

Whalen, Kinch and Sandberg forged ahead. They filmed for almost a year. And then Sandberg went ahead and bought a 20-acre farm on the side of a mountain. The story completely changed.

“I realized, now the story is massive. The impact on the restaurant in terms of quantity of products went to tw0 to 20, and David decided to take a remodel in the middle of a recession,” says Whalen.

He filmed for two more years, cubby-holed in the cramped, hushed Manresa kitchen for hours, trying to capture the non-verbal communication of the cooks. When he wasn’t at the restaurant, he was perched along the sprawling slopes of Santa Cruz at all hours, trying to capture the relationships as Kinch and Sandberg worked together side by side over the course of years.

“It dawned on me. They’re artists. They just happened to be working in food and dirt and leaves,” says Whalen. “How many times do we get to see two people on the top of their game, two people who are admired worldwide at being the best in the world?”

“What you see is that it’s like a trusting marriage that each year, less needs to be said and more is understood. There’s such an amazing amount of respect going both ways,” he continues. “There is a lot of failure, too; it’ll take years to perfect melons and fava beans the way they want it.”

“They have a living and breathing farm in the middle of Silicon Valley. That’s not an easy thing to do.”

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“The Farmer and The Chef” will premiere on March 9 in San Jose. Screenings are also set for New York and Los Angeles, and Whalen hopes to screen it in San Francisco and Los Gatos as well, not mention KQED and Netflix eventually. More information on future screenings will be available on its website.